Sharp images + Macro focus

Hey guys!

So about 2 or 3 months ago I fell in love with macro photography.

My gear is: sony a6300 + 15-60mm lens (kit lens), Fantasea FA6500 housing, AOI ucl-09f (+12.5 supermacro) and inon d2000s (that works once in a while).

I noticed 2 mainly things:

1. Focus- I don't always get the focus on the area I want. I've tried center focus until now, on my last dive I tried wide focus and it worked a bit better.

Since I mostly like to take pictures of nudi, I get only part of the nudi in focus (both with a wide and a narrow aperture). Is there something I'm missing in settings? Usually I take pictures with SS 1/250, ISO 100 and aperture of 4.5-6.3 if the strobe is not working or 8+ if it's working.

2. Sharp images- I noticed it on my dry photos as well as on the wet photos. Some pictures are sharp and some aren't, on the same settings as mentioned before (for UW photography). Is it becuse of the lens? Something in my settings other than my SS ISO & apt?

Partly it is the lens choice. Supermacro is tricky and adding a wet diopter makes it more tricky.  Depth of field is shallow at f6.3 and larger apertures; nothing you can do about that (it is physics). Try this on land with the housing setup. Get a nice small flower with good colors and shapes. Set u your system on a tripod and shoot with the lens alone. The kit lens has a native magnification of only 0.21 meaning that on your 6300, a critter about 100 mm will fill the frame. If you add the AOI you will get more magnification but much shallower DOF. 

So take some shots of your flower at various settings, with and without the add on lens. Try shooting at apertures higher than 8 (like f/16). 

If you want the whole nubibranch sharp then shoot from a bit further away and crop a bit,

Cheers

Bill

52 minutes ago, bvanant said:

 

If you want the whole nubibranch sharp then shoot from a bit further away and crop a bit

I'll try it, thank you!

The problem with the kit lens is that I kinda have to use it. I want to be versatile during the dive (macro and from time to time regular or wide angel) and with that port it's either the kit lens or one of sony's macro lenses (30mm, 50mm or 90mm)

The downside to versatility is performance (or there is no free breakfast).

Bill

On 10/30/2021 at 7:02 PM, sarthur1 said:

Hey guys!

So about 2 or 3 months ago I fell in love with macro photography.

My gear is: sony a6300 + 15-60mm lens (kit lens), Fantasea FA6500 housing, AOI ucl-09f (+12.5 supermacro) and inon d2000s (that works once in a while).

 

I noticed 2 mainly things:

1. Focus- I don't always get the focus on the area I want. I've tried center focus until now, on my last dive I tried wide focus and it worked a bit better.

Since I mostly like to take pictures of nudi, I get only part of the nudi in focus (both with a wide and a narrow aperture). Is there something I'm missing in settings? Usually I take pictures with SS 1/250, ISO 100 and aperture of 4.5-6.3 if the strobe is not working or 8+ if it's working.

 

2. Sharp images- I noticed it on my dry photos as well as on the wet photos. Some pictures are sharp and some aren't, on the same settings as mentioned before (for UW photography). Is it becuse of the lens? Something in my settings other than my SS ISO & apt?

Getting precise focus on things like a nudis rhinopores can be challenging.  Placing the AF point on the Rhinopore is part of the equation', but the camera AF system will lock onto the thing with most contrast in the little square you see in the viewfinder and to make things difficult the little square you see does not always represent the full extent of the area the AF sensor can see.  There are several things you can try - if the camera has an option for small AF points, try that out.  You can activate peaking and then AF and rock back and forth a little till the rhinopore comes into sharp focus.. 

I would also suggest for APS-C I would start at f11 to get enough depth of field any less and and chances are the important bits are more likely to fall outside the zone if sharpest focus.  If you are full framing a nudi from the front , you won't get it all in focus even at f22.  Backing off even a little and showing more of the environment around the Nudi will get more of it in focus.  As you reduce magnification depth of field goes up quite rapidly.  Also, yes a macro lens will make this easier to achieve.